The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
Innumerable are the men who have excelled in the various arts; we
may, however, take a cursory survey of them, by citing the names of
the principal ones. Berosus excelled in astrology; and on account of
his divinations and predictions, a public statue was erected in his
honour by the Athenians. Apollodorus, for his skill as a grammarian,
had public honours decreed him by the Amphictyonic Council of Greece.
Hippocrates excelled in medicine; before its arrival, he predicted
the plague, which afterwards came from Illyria, and sent his pupils
to various cities, to give their assistance. As an acknowledgment of
his merit, Greece decreed him the same honours as to Hercules.[1163]
King Ptolemy rewarded a similar degree of skill in the person of
Cleombrotus of Ceos, by a donation of one hundred talents, at the
Megalensian games,[1164] he having succeeded in saving the life of King
Antiochus.[1165] Critobulus also rendered himself extremely famous, by
extracting an arrow[1166] from the eye of King Philip with so much
skill, that, although the sight was lost, there was no defect to be
seen.[1167] Asclepiades of Prusa, however, acquired the greatest fame
of all—he founded a new sect, treated with disdain the promises of
King Mithridates conveyed to him by an embassy, discovered a method
of successfully treating diseases by wine,[1168] and, breaking in
upon the funeral ceremony, saved the life of a man, who was actually
placed[1169] on the funeral pile. He rendered himself, however, more
celebrated than all, by staking his reputation as a physician against
Fortune herself, and asserting that he did not wish to be so much as
looked upon as a physician, if he should ever happen in any way to fall
sick; and he won his wager, for he met his death at an extreme old age,
by falling down stairs.[1170]
CHAP. 38.—GEOMETRY AND ARCHITECTURE.
M. Marcellus, too, at the taking of Syracuse, offered a remarkable
homage to the sciences of geometry and mechanics, by giving orders that
Archimedes was to be the only person who should not be molested; his
commands, however, were disregarded, in consequence of the imprudence
of one of the soldiers.[1171] Chersiphron, also, the Cnossian,[1172]
was rendered famous by the admirable construction of the temple
of Diana at Ephesus; Philon, by the construction of the basin at
Athens, which was capable of containing one thousand vessels;[1173]
Ctesibius, by the invention of pneumatics and hydraulic machines; and
Dinochares,[1174] by the plan which he made of the city of Alexandria,
founded by Alexander in Egypt. The same monarch, too, by public edict,
declared that no one should paint his portrait except Apelles, and
that no one should make a marble statue of him except Pyrgoteles, or
a bronze one except Lysippus.[1175] These arts have all been rendered
glorious by many illustrious examples.
CHAP. 39. (38.)—OF PAINTING; ENGRAVING ON BRONZE, MARBLE, AND IVORY; OF
CARVING.
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